Val d’Arno di Sopra DOC

The upper Arno valley between Florence and Arezzo, and one of the four zones named in Cosimo III de’ Medici’s decree of 1716 — alongside Chianti, Carmignano and Pomino, the first legal delimitation of wine-producing areas anywhere in the world.

The History in the Landscape The registered file makes an unusually physical claim about continuity. Still evident in the zone, it says, are the traces of the Roman roads with, beside them, the boundaries of the vineyards — earlier Etruscan — and the dry-stone terracings of medieval date along the pilgrim routes towards Rome. It then names the decree: the bando of 1716 indicated the Val d’Arno as an area of quality wine production. After the oidium epidemic, it records, came a period of experimentation with new varieties; and from the 1970s, wines of recognised international standing — which is what led to the denomination existing at all.

The Terroir The zone covers the Arezzo-province communes of the upper valley — Bucine, Montevarchi, Terranuova Bracciolini, Loro Ciuffenna, Cavriglia, Castelfranco di Sopra and their neighbours. The valley floor is old lake bed; the vineyards sit above it on the flanks, on sandy and pebbly soils from Pliocene lake sediments, with the Pratomagno ridge to the east and the Chianti hills to the west funnelling air down the valley.

Grape Varieties Sangiovese is the base of the red, with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Syrah permitted alongside, and Canaiolo and Ciliegiolo among the natives. The white runs on Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Trebbiano and Malvasia.

The Organic Question Val d’Arno di Sopra tried to do something no Italian denomination had done. Its consortium — more than thirty producers representing over 80 per cent of production, all already farming organically — asked unanimously to write certified organic production into the disciplinare itself, and to redraw the boundaries onto the lines of Cosimo III’s edict. The agriculture ministry refused, on 1 April 2020, holding that a disciplinare must govern elements affecting the specific quality of the product, not horizontal production methods already covered by separate regulation. The wines are all organic regardless; the name simply cannot say so.

The Critical Take This is Super Tuscan country without the Super Tuscan prices, and the international varieties here are not a recent fashion — the file dates the experimentation to the aftermath of oidium in the nineteenth century. The best reds are Merlot and Sangiovese of real concentration from a handful of ambitious estates; the rest is honest and inexpensive. The denomination’s problem is that its own best wines were built as IGT brands before it existed, and many still are.

At the Table Aretine cooking: bistecca, scottiglia, wild boar, pici, and pecorino. Serve the reds at 16–18°C, the whites at 10–12°C.

Benchmark Producers Petrolo, Tenuta Sette Ponti, Il Borro.